Small and Medium-sized Enterprise
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Small and Medium-sized Enterprises or SMEs are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.
Apparently the abbreviation SME occurs most commonly in the EU. The term Small or Medium sized Business or SMB has become more standard elsewhere.
EU Member States traditionally had their own definition of what constitutes an SME, for example the traditional definition in Germany had a limit of 500 employees, while (for example) in Belgium it could have been 100. But nowadays the EU has started to standardise the concept. Its current definition categorises companies with fewer than 50 employees as "small", and those with fewer than 250 as "medium".
As of 2005, Germany will use the definition of the European Commission.
Business enterprises of fewer than 10 employees often class as SOHO (for Small office/home office).
In most economies, smaller enterprises predominate. In the EU, SMEs comprise approximately 99% of all firms and employ between them about 65 million people.
SMEs, in contrast to big business, have a reputation for innovation. For this reason, and because of their difficulties in attracting capital, national and regional fostering of SMEs commonly occurs.
In the United States there is no standard definition for a small business. Generally it is determined by the industry in which it competes, where income and number of employees will determine whether a company is a small business or not. Many government contracts are "set aside" (i.e., competition is limited to small businesses only, most often involving services or minor construction).
Web Resources
- U.S. Small Business Administration The U.S. Federal government agency that administers resources for small businesses.
- National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship News aggregation site for entrepreneurship stories from around the world.
- NFIB The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is an advocacy group with over 600,000 independent and small business members from across the United States.
- Small Business Trends A regularly updated site that follows trends impacting small and midsise businesses.
- TrendTracker A site that has identified nine major trends shaping small and midsise businesses.
- SME Data Data on micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) participation in the economies of over 70 countries, including selected business environment and investment climate indicators.
- SME Department of the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group. Information about IFC's work to promote SME development in emerging economies. Link to their quarterly e-newsletter, OUTCOMES, monitoring & evaluation information, data and publications.
